Norman Leyden will lead the Utah Symphony in music from the big-band era today at 3:30 p.m. at the new Snowbird Event Center. Tickets are $25 (reserved) and $15 (nonreserved), available at the gate.
Joining him will be the vocalist Shira, serving up hits from the catalogs of Glenn Miller, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.A graduate of Yale University, Leyden went on to earn a doctorate at Columbia after arranging for the Miller orchestra, Mitch Miller and Arthur Godfrey, among others. He is currently associate conductor of the Oregon Symphony and director of the Seattle Symphony Pops, a position he has held for the past 17 years.
- EASTERN ARTS will present two folk-dance groups from this year's Bountiful Summerfest International at 6 p.m. today in the Union Building ballroom at the University of Utah.
Performing will be Conjunto Folklorico Mageesteial from Mexico City and the University of the East Dance Troupe from the Philippines. The first is a 40-member troupe with live music specializing in traditional dances of the differing subcultures in Mexico. The latter incorporates such Philippine cultures as Ming, Phoenician, Javanese, Chinese, Dutch, Portuguese, Japanese, Spanish, French and American, accompanied by brass percussion and drum.
Admission is free.
- THE DEER VALLEY INTERNATIONAL Chamber Music Festival presents three concerts this week - at 7:30 this evening at the new Park City Community Church, on Thursday, Aug. 13, at 7:30 p.m. at the home of Tom and Linda Graue and on Saturday, Aug. 15, at 4 p.m. at the Goldener Hirsch at Silver Lake Village.
Featured this evening will be cellist Gayle Smith and pianist John Jensen performing music of Beethoven, clarinetist Russell Harlow and bassoonist Mitchell Morrison in Mendelssohn's Op. 113 1nd 114 Concertpieces for Clarinet and Basset Horn and violinist Daniel Lewin, violist Leslie Blackburn-Harlow and Smith and Jensen in Brahms' Op. 26 Piano Quartet in A major.
Thursday's house concert will likewise feature music of Brahms, his Op. 114 Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano as performed by Harlow, Jensen and cellist Terry King, and Kodaly (the Op. 7 Duo, with Lewin and King). Both King and Jensen have recorded for the Music & Arts label and are members of the Mirecourt Trio.
Performing Saturday at Silver Lake Village will be the Drinkall-Baker Duo - cellist Roger Drinkall and his wife, pianist Dian Baker - in sonatas of Saint-Saens, Debussy and Barber and music of Ginastera and Corelli. Hors d'oeuvres will be served before and during the program.
Tickets are $10 for tonight's program ($8 students and seniors), $25 for the house concert and $15 for the Silver Lake Lodge. In addition music students will be admitted free with a note from their principal teacher.
For information call 649-5309 or 1-800-472-6073.
- THE COOL CLASSICS summer recital series at Utah State University continues this week with a lecture-recital Wednesday, Aug. 12, at 7:30 p.m. in Room 220 of the Chase Fine Arts Center.
Featured will be Brent Hugh, will will discuss the relationship between music and mathematics and present two pieces he has written based on mathematics, "Fractal Variations" and `Chaotic Suite for Computer and Synthesizer." The latter will be performed by computer.
- THE MORMON YOUTH SYMPHONY and Chorus will present its annual summer concert Wednesday, Aug. 12, at 8 p.m. in the Salt Lake Tabernacle.
Under music director Robert C. Bowden, the group will offer music ranging from their hymn recordings ("How Great Thou Art," "The Spirit of God Like a Fire Is Burning," etc.) to "A Choral Portrait," a Hoagy Carmichael medley. In addition Michael Ballam will sing "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" and "O Lord, Most Holy" and pianist David Glenn Hatch will solo in "I Walk by Faith" and "Ave Maria."
Admission is free to those 8 and older, with the doors opening at 7 p.m. and seats available on a first-come, first-served basis.
- SOPRANO JAYNE SWENSEN will present a free recital Friday, Aug. 14, at 7:30 p.m. in the Temple Square Assembly Hall. A veteran of roles with Salt Lake Opera Theatre, City Rep and the Babcock Theater, she will sing Dvorak's Op. 55 Gypsy Songs, the "Chansons de Ronsard" of Darius Milhaud and music of Handel ("Let the Bright Seraphim"), Schubert, Nacio Herb Brown and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Accompanying her will be clarinetist Jaren Hinckley, organist Bob Mensel and pianist Denise Farrington.
- IT'S "LISTENER'S CHOICE" at the Utah Symphony next weekend as newly appointed associate conductor Robert Henderson leads the orchestra in three nights of what are guaranteed to be audience favorites.
Concerts will be presented Friday, Aug. 14, at 8 p.m. in Symphony Hall; Saturday, Aug. 15, at 7:30 p.m. at Deer Valley; and Sunday, Aug. 15, at 3:30 p.m. at Snowbird. At each, the orchestra will be ready to perform a variety of well-known classical pieces by such composers as Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Mozart. At various junctures the audience will then vote, by means of applause and official Utah Symphony noisemakers, on which they want to hear. Results will be measured by an applause meter onstage.
Soloist for the evening will be flutist Leone Buyse, acting principal flutist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, who is the featured artist at this week's Mu Phi Epsilon international convention. She will be heard in Mozart's Concerto in D major.
In addition the audience will be able to select an overture, entr'acte and, following intermission, a complete symphony composed of movements from the Beethoven Fifth and Ninth, Mozart 40th and 41st, Tchaikovsky Fourth, Fifth and Sixth, Sibelius Second and Dvorak "New World" symphonies, among others.
Tickets for the Symphony Hall performance are $12-18, for Deer Valley $15 and $30 and $15 and $25 for Snowbird. For information call 533-NOTE.
Earlier in the week Buyse will also present a master class, on Wednesday, Aug. 12, from 2 to 5 p.m. at Nunemaker Place on the Westminster College campus. Sponsored by the Utah Flute Association, the event open to auditors for a fee of $5. For information call 485-7293.